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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

News and Notes: Tuesday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Tuesday...

With Harvard moving into the Top 25 of both the major pools, Bloomberg.com writes, "Cornell was the most recent previous Ivy team to be nationally ranked after cracking the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll for two weeks during the 2009-10 season. The Big Red entered the poll at No. 25 on Feb. 1 and moved to No. 22 the following week before dropping out. It ended the season back in the coaches’ poll at No. 17. " On the same topic, the Columbia Spectator writes that Harvard's "contest against UConn on Thursday will be a good measuring stick to see how much work Harvard has to do if they want to go deep in the NCAA tournament like the 09-10 Cornell team."

Not only is Cornell freshman Shonn Miller making a strong push for Ivy League Rookie of the Year, he is also making a case for an All Ivy League selection. While only playing 23.4 minutes per game, he is currently 6th in the Ivy League in rebounding (6.4 rpg) and 1st among freshmen. He is also 3rd in the league in blocks (1.3 bpg), 1st among freshmen and 20th in scoring (9.4 ppg), 2nd among freshmen.

According to ESPN, the Ivy League is currently ranked 19th among 32 conferences.

Game Recaps-Below are links to our game recap sections from each of Cornell's games this season.

Cornell RPI Watch: The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule and how a team does against that schedule. It does not consider the margin of victory, but only whether or not a team won and where the game was played (home/away/neutral court). The formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). (See: CollegeRPI.com for a further explanation of the formula.) The RPI may be the most influential factor in NCAA Tournament seeding. Cornell's RPI rank as of December 6 is No. 246 out of 344 total Division I teams. While neither the Ken Pomeroy or Jeff Sagarin rankings are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the KenPom.com site ranks Cornell No. 174 in the nation, while the USA Today Sagarin rankings have Cornell at No. 228. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

Cornell was never ranked in the A.P. poll during the 2009-2010 season. However, the A.P. does not issue a postseason poll (i.e., there is no AP poll after the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament. If the AP did, Cornell would almost certainly have been ranked in a final AP Poll.

Cornell was however ranked in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll for 2 consecutive weeks during the 2009-2010 season until the Big Red dropped out of the poll (Cornell held rankings of No. 25 and No. 22 before falling out). After the NCAA Tournament ended, Cornell jumped back into the coaches' poll at No. 17 in its final issuance, a postseason ranking.

The final ranking is all that matters.

Considering there are still 3.5 months of basketball still to be played, landing in a final ranking is a long way away. Just ask schools like the University of Portland.